OCA Greater Seattle President Connie So speaks on stopping sale of National Archives facility
On January 4, 2021, OCA Greater Seattle President Connie So said the following at a press conference regarding the lawsuit against the Federal Government to stop the sale of the National Archives Facility in Seattle:
Hello. I am Connie So, President of the Greater Seattle Chapter of OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, a civil rights organization dedicated to serving the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans. We proudly join the Washington State Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Federal Government to stop the sale of the National Archives Facility in Seattle.
The Archive’s public records directly connect current generations to the past. As a descendant of an 1850s Chinese gold prospector, I have first-hand knowledge of how the Archives are critical partners in preserving our community’s history. After facing tremendous hostility, most early Chinese Americans left few records of their lives and history prior to 1950. This makes the Archive’s files related to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, for example, all-the-more valuable. These documents include precious information about families, marriages, lifestyles, occupations, businesses, land ownership, religion, food, medicine, travels to and from China, networking, organizations, and other information that would otherwise be lost. The National Archives facility is fundamental to our Asian Pacific American communities. Cutting access to these important historical records would be devastating.
I would like to share two specific stories about the Archive’s importance. In my professional life, I am a Teaching Professor at the University of Washington’s American Ethnic Studies department. Back in 1996, when Seattle hosted the Association for Asian American Studies conference, we made a special trip with some of our conference attendees to the Archives. Many people marveled at the fact that they could find information on relatives that they thought were long-lost. People shared poignant stories, especially when they discovered a photograph of a family member.
More recently, the Archives were vital to the Asian Pacific American community’s collective ability to find information about Japanese, Filipino, and Chinese Americans who served in World War II. This information led to our successful campaigns to honor our Veterans with the Congressional Gold Medal.
OCA-Greater Seattle proudly joins this lawsuit to ensure that generations of records continue to be available to our community. Thank you.
